Questions on plants and CO2

[tmtpowers]

I have a total of 11 plants in my 55g. They are:

3 Cabombas
2 Anacharis
4 Green M??? Grass
and 2 Red L????

Sorry I don't remember the full names of the last two plants.

These are all kept in a 55G. I am wondering if I have to add the CO2 or not for such a light planting? I do add plant food with iron either every water change or every other depending on the amount of water I need to change out. I have 50lbs of very small gravel and 25lbs of typical sized gravel. We also have the lights meant for plant growth. I believe its 15Ws.

I'm new at plant keeping but want to do it right. So any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[tanker]

15 watts is not enough for a 10gal. Are you missing a one somewhere?? You going to need at least 1.5 watts per gallon. With CO2 you can go higher (I have about 4+ watts per gal).

[tmtpowers]

Hmm, no it says 15W :( Guess the box lied to me once again LOL So far the plants have been doing good but I will be going out to get a higher wattage! Hmm, I don't think I've ever seen anything local above 25W! Or at least I don't think I have... OK here is what the box says:
Lumens=675
Watts=15
Life=7500 hours
CRI.IRC=67
Kelvin=9325
Length=18


OK, so I found a 40W on the petsmart site. But thats the highest I've found. Where do I need to look for the lights at? Also, does it need to be 82.5 (Guess 100W will be the size I should get) for each bulb or does it need to be combined?

Is the CO2 a must or is the plant food plus the CO2 my fish put off enough?

Sorry to sound like a complete idiot but I guess in the plant area, I am LOL

[IceH2O]

If you stay under 2 wpg you can be without CO2, maybe just add Flourish Excel to help the plants.

If you could buy 2 of the 40 watt light strips you'd be okay for low light plants. If you're serious about growing plants you'll want to look into getting compact flourescents. I have a 96 watt on my 55 which gives me about 1.75 wpg, my 75 has 130 watts which is also 1.75 wpg or so.

Just google compact flourescents and you'll find all kinds of deals.

[tmtpowers]

OK so I am curious to know, the compact flourescent bulbs are normal lights aren't they? Like the ones you would use around the house? Whats the difference in these VS aquarium lights for plants? Is there anywhere with the aquarium plant lights in the size I need?

I also I don't know if this is correct or not but I read:

4) Can you give a brief explanation of watts

Watts - Used to measure power consumption. Often individuals confuse a "wattage" rating with a "lumen" rating. Lumens describe the 'brightness' of a lamp, "wattage" describes the power it takes (on your utility bill) to drive that lamp. In general, however, a higher wattage lamp with normally produce more light (more lumens) than a lower wattage lamp OF THE SAME TYPE.

OK, so does this mean that the lumens is more important or the wattage? Now I'm totally confused......

[Mgamer20o0]

if you want to know about lighting read this.
http://woo.gotdns.com/Aquarium/Lighting.htm
this is the best page i ever read and it helped me out a lot.

watts per gallon is used best for t12 lighing. most everythin you read is on watts but you hit it right. lumens are more important. once you read this page it should clear things up. i would get some t8 bulbs. they are cheap to buy. not only that is you can upgrade them later on with odno.
http://tristan.homelinux.net/fish/tank/retrofit/index.htm

t8 bulbs need to be changed every 6-9 months but they are a lot cheaper then pc.

[tmtpowers]

Thank you so much!!!! That helped out a lot!!!!

[tmtpowers]

LOL BTW is there anywhere local that I should be able to find the T8s?

[Goatman]

Home Depot or Lowes?

[tmtpowers]

Awesome! How much am I looking at for a 150W T8?

[Mgamer20o0]

so you want about 3wpg? your best bet would be t8 doing odno. basicly 2 t8 bulbs odno. you will end up with 3wpg. give or take.

http://www.gwapa.org/articles/ODNO/

these people say $20-$30

[Goatman]

Mgamer... don't recommend products you haven't used, especially ones with a disclaimer attached. If you want to go with t8s, get 2 2-strip lights from Home Depot, they're $19 each, with bulbs being around $16 for the 4. If you prefer going with ODNO lighting, the price will be about $8 cheaper, since you need to buy both shop lights (for the ballasts), and 2 bulbs. As for $20-$30, I told you on your post about it Mgamer, that's not current pricing.

[Mgamer20o0]

i am in the middle of doing them. read mostly good things about them all over the place. there are always disclaimer when ever you change things that were not made that way. i am ending up doing the lighting for even cheaper then $20 each. for other people it might be more. i dont remember 100% of everything i read. getting two strips to end up with 4 bulbs would also work. it will end up being more light then they said which isnt always a bad idea. again sorry i didtn have time to write out every way they could go.

[tmtpowers]

Thanks guys for your tips! I'll be heading to Lowes tomorrow :)

[reiverix]

The thing about shop lights is that they are designed to spread light over a large area. In other words, a lot of the light won't be directed downwards into your tank. When it comes to lighting, a good reflector is just as important as the bulbs.

[Mgamer20o0]

ahsupply lights are great. shop lights are not always the best. some people cant or dont want to spend that much.

[tmtpowers]

OK, so what are ah supply lights and where can I buy them if thats what I decide?